Do patterns always repeat? Not necessarily! Some types of patterns have this wonderful quality of never looking exactly the same.
Let's find out more.
A pattern is repeating or "tileable" when a part of it can be used to repeat the pattern indefinitely in all directions.
Below you see a Cross (P4M) and Honeycomb (P6M) tiling, with in red their repeatable tile.
Most tilings in Repper can be repeated like this, and those you can Export as tile.
P4M: Here the repeatable rectangle is easy to spot
P6M: This one is a little trickier, but look closely and notice how the pattern in the red rectangle is repeated on all sides.
Have a look at the Diamond Penrose tiling below. Where is the repeatable block in this pattern?
Don't look too hard, because it's actually impossible 😄
While the pattern has repeating elements*,* it has no block that can be repeated to create the whole, because it looks a little different everywhere you look.
The non-repetitiveness (is that word?) creates a beautifully diverse pattern that keeps drawing you in and never gets boring.
There are two ways to make a non-repeating pattern in Repper: with a Penrose tiling and with the Metamorphosis effect.